CB360 Week-8 Composite Baseball Rankings (2014)

South Carolina and Florida State continued to jockey atop CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings (CNR), with the Gamecocks narrowly reclaiming the top spot over FSU (98.77 to 98.54) following the seventh week of the DI baseball season. Over the past six weeks, South Carolina and FSU each have held the top spot in the CNR three times, after Cal State Fullerton was No. 1 in the preseason and after week-1 (the Titans now have dropped all the way to #21).

South Carolina and Florida State continued to jockey atop CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings (CNR), with the Gamecocks narrowly reclaiming the top spot over FSU (98.77 to 98.54) following the seventh week of the DI baseball season. Over the past six weeks, South Carolina and FSU each have held the top spot in the CNR three times, after Cal State Fullerton was No. 1 in the preseason and after week-1 (the Titans now have dropped all the way to #21).

The 3-4-5 teams (Virginia, Louisiana-Lafayette and Vanderbilt) retained their spots in the CNR, while Cal Poly continued its historic season, moving up from 9th to 6th. Texas finally has made its return to the CNR top-10 (jumping up from 13th to 7th), while Houston finds itself in the top-10 for the first time in seven-year history of the CNR (up from 12th to 8th). Oregon State has returned to the top-10 (from 11th to 9th), while Rice has slipped back a couple spots to 10th.

The three teams that slid outside the current CNR top-10 include Oregon (6th to 11th), LSU (7th to 15th) and Ole Miss, which dropped from 10th to 18th.

Current #28 Arizona State is back in the CNR top-50, as is (47) UAB and (48) Dallas Baptist, while two others – (40) West Virginia and (49) Duke – have made their 2014 debut in the CNR top-50. The five teams that dropped out of the top-50: (31) Georgia Tech, (36) Baylor, (38.)Texas A&M, (45) Ohio State and (50) Creighton.

The current top-50 includes 10 SEC teams (eight of them among the top-20), plus eight from the ACC and five each from the Pac-12 and Big 12. Other conference current represented in the CNR: 3 each from the Big West, Conference USA and Mountain West … 2 each from the American Athletic, Missouri Valley and West Coast Conference … 1 each from the Atlantic 10, Atlantic Sun, BIG EAST, Big South, Big Ten, Southland and Sun Belt.

Florida continued its climb, vaulting all the way from 35th to 12th after a huge series sweep of LSU. Others making double-digit jumps in the CNR: Alabama (#43 to #20), Miami (#37 to #27) and Pepperdine (#42 to #32). Maryland took the biggest tumble within the CNR, from 25th to 45th, while North Carolina slipped from 21st to 35th and NC State fell 10 spots to 34th.

Texas A&M became the 23rd team to slide out of the CB360 top-50, after being in the preseason top-50. The Aggies entered the 2014 season 25th in the CB360 top-50 (other CNR preseason top-50 teams currently outside the top-50 include: preseason #18 Kansas State, 21–Arizona State, 28–Arizona, 29–East Carolina and 30–Arkansas).

Six of the teams in the CB360 preseason top-10 now find themselves outside of the top-10, including Indiana (preseason #7) all the way down at 25th and current #14 Mississippi State (opened season at #4). Cal State Fullerton was the CB360 preseason #1 (now 21st), while current #34 NC State was 8th in the preseason. LSU was #6 in the CNR preseason but now is 15th, and current #11 Oregon opened the season in the 9th spot.

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: Teams receive points based on their standings in each poll/rating/projection (60 pts for #1; 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB) and the various RPI-type ratings, the CNR adjusts to reward teams that have larger margins in the voting/point totals (whereas two teams with nearly the same voting-point total will be closer in the CNR allotment for that poll). Note that strength-of-schedule typically is factored into RPI formulations … thus the actual SOS numbers only are used early in the season (SOS are not used in the CNR when RPI already are in the mix). For the NCAA field projections, teams are awarded CNR points based on their respective seedings, “last in” and “last out,” etc.

The polls/ratings/projections are averaged, with 40 points typically then added to each total in order to yield the 100-point benchmark. Early in the season (projected SOS) and late in the season (final-10 games), a maximum bonus/penalty of 0.3 (SOS) or 0.5 points (final-10) is factored into the formula (in that case, 39.7 or 39.5, rather than 40, is added to the poll/rating/projection avg.).